This is How to Use the 5 Elements of Effective Thinking!

Reading through the introduction of The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking by Edward B. Burger and Michael Starbird, I was a little intrigued by a statement that they made.

The statement was:

“This book describes habits that will automatically cause you to regularly produce new knowledge and insight. Remember: Extraordinary people are just ordinary people who are thinking differently—and that could be you.” ¹

The word that caught my eye was ‘automatically’ – to me, it’s a pretty bold, if not borderline cocky statement and it kinda made me want to continue reading to see if they could deliver.

These are the 5 Elements of Effective Thinking

The authors, both university professors, provide 5 thinking elements or habits that they claim will make us better and more effective in the classroom, boardroom, and the living room. While I wonder to myself why they left out the bedroom, I will not digress any more than that and will move along…

Let’s now review the 5 elements of effective thinking that they cover in the book, as well as a few of the strategies that they recommend for how to use them in your life:

Element #1:  Understand Deeply

The first element they introduce centers around being careful not to face complicated problems head on but to instead understand basic ideas deeply. The idea is to get rid of the clutter and superfluous items to reveal what is most important. Be honest with what you do and do not understand, see what’s missing, and then fill in the gaps. They also suggest abandoning any bias, prejudice or preconceived notions that you have.

Strategy #1: Ask – What Do You Know?

How well do you know the basics of whatever you are trying to learn or understand?

Either open up a document or grab a piece of paper and write down a comprehensive outline detailing the fundamentals of the subject.

Then sit back and look at it and try to figure out where the gaps are in your knowledge and try to figure out what you are missing and what you don’t know.

Next, slowly start studying and learning so you fill in the gaps. If you want more detail you can check out our previous post on the Feynmann method, which is basically what the authors are discussing here.

Strategy #2: Uncover One Essential

Take a subject or idea you wish to understand better, clear away all the unnecessary clutter to uncover one essential or core element. Start at that point and then build on your knowledge from there.

Strategy #3:  Try on Alternatives and Size Up the Fit

Take an opinion that you currently hold and then momentarily embrace a view that is different from yours. Don’t judge or resist it, simply try to understand it more realistically. The idea is not to change your opinion, which may happen, but rather to understand why alternatives make sense to others. This is similar to other person’s viewpoint (OPV) which we have discussed previously.

Element #2:  Make Mistakes

Sometimes we need to fail to succeed. Mistakes can be great teachers and should be embraced. Many times, they alert us to both gaps in our knowledge base as well as opportunities we did not know existed. Lastly, they help direct us to where to go next while sparking our imaginations.

Strategy #1: Fall 9 Times

This strategy is just taking an attitude that “I may fall 9 times but on the 10^th attempt I will be successful.” It is freeing and lets you know that each step, even if not a successful one, is a step closer to succeeding.

Strategy #2: Don’t Stare at a Blank Screen

I really like this one and the idea is to simply get any ideas down on paper or in a document on a computer.

Just go – good, bad, inaccurate, jumbled, disorganized – who cares, that’s not the point. The point is to get stuff down and then to go back and read through and focus on two things – what is right and what is wrong. Then simply tease out and expand upon what is good and recognize, exploit and correct what is wrong.

Strategy #3: Have a Bad Day!

We all have bad days it happens to everyone! Those who are successful are different from those who are not in how they react to those bad days. They realize they are having a bad day, don’t get too low, and instead, look for positive lessons to learn from.

Element #3:  Raise Questions

Continually identifying questions can help us clarify and bolster our understanding of whatever it is we are trying to learn. The key is to uncover the right question as working on the wrong question can take you down the wrong path and thus waste a lot of time. Ideas are everywhere, the onus is on us to ask the right questions that can expose them and help us connect the dots we may have otherwise missed.

Strategy #1:  Teach to Learn

Another idea which we have discussed previously. Learn as if you are going to have to teach someone the concept you are learning. As you are learning, pretend you are going to have to present on it the next day. Will you be more tuned in and focused? Of course, you will!

Strategy #2:  Improve the Question

There are many times when the question we ask is not the best question to help lead us to the most productive conclusion. For example, as the authors point out, a student may ask “How can I get better grades?”. The better question or questions may be “How can I learn to think better and understand more deeply?” ¹ or “How can I increase my curiosity?” ¹

Strategy #3: Ask Meta-Questions

Meta-questions are questions about questions. The idea is to ask questions about things you are about to do before working them to help you obtain a better final result.

For example, “Why am I being asked to do this?” or “What is the benefit of doing this?” By asking these questions beforehand you will be more focused on the main issues and clear up any confusion before starting.

Element #4:  Follow the flow of ideas

Every idea originated with another idea and will result in more ideas down the line. For example, the Apple computer created back in the 1970s has evolved to the MacBook we have today and who knows what it will evolve to in the future! The idea is to understand a concept, think about how it evolved, then think ahead to where it may end up.

Strategy #1:  Iterate Ideas

This is like “don’t stare at a blank screen” and goes along with the element of failure above. When faced with a project, paper, blog post – just start, getting going on it and then keep iterating until you have a final refined product you are happy with.

Strategy #2:  Extend Ideas

Here the idea is to take an existing idea and then extend or expand upon it. The key is not to judge whether an idea can be extended, the idea is to be proactive to find the extension.

Strategy #3:  Think Back

As the authors say: “Whenever you face an issue—whether an area of study or a decision about a future path—consider what came before. Wonder how the issue at hand landed in front of you. Ask where and what it was yesterday, a month ago, a year ago, and so forth. Everything, everyone evolves.” ¹

Element #5:  Change

The final element is change and the authors suggest that by simply mastering the first four elements we can change how we learn and think. As they say: “You can always improve, grow and extract more out of your education, yourself, and the way you live your life. Change is the universal constant that allows you to get the most out of living and learning.” ¹

Strategy #1:  Expert Change

Put yourself in the shoes of an expert or skilled practitioner when trying to understand a skill, solve a problem, or learn something. Then ask yourself what they would be doing to undertake the task you are undertaking. Rather than thinking something is difficult, think of knowledge or skills you can utilize to make it easier.

Strategy #2:  The Quintessential You

This one simply has you utilizing the first four elements, or whatever methods you can use, and taking action with them to help you think better than you currently do. The idea is that to get different results, you need to think differently.

 So, Did the Book Meet Its Bold Claim?

While I did enjoy the book and did learn some cool stuff that I will use, I’m not sure it will automatically cause me to regularly produce new knowledge and insight.

For one thing, they suggest a little mnemonic device to help remember the 5 elements of effective thinking that they teach.

It goes like this: they associate their elements of thinking with the classical elements that were at one time believed to be the critical parts of nature and matter.

Earth = understand deeply
Fire = make mistakes
Air = raise questions
Water = follow the flow of ideas
The Quintessential Element = change

The only problem and I can only speak for my Canadian educated-self here, is that while I have heard of the 5 elements of nature and matter, I wouldn’t be able to name them all tomorrow, let alone associate them with the 5 elements of effective thinking.  But that’s just me…

So, while it’s a clever mnemonic, those elements will be hard for me to remember as I didn’t learn them in ‘element’-ary school!

Ha! I’ll be here all week!

Until next time, you keep using The 5 Elements of Essential Thinking, I’ll stop with the corny jokes and as always…PYMFP!
-Rick

P.S. Wanna know more? Check out the entire book.

Use it or Lose It – The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking

The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking and some strategies for each are:

  Element #1: Understand Deeply
Strategy #1 – Ask what do you know?
Strategy #2 – Uncover one essential
Strategy #3: Try on alternatives and size up the fit

  Element #2: Make Mistakes
Strategy #1: Fall 9 Times
Strategy #2: Don’t Stare at a Blank Screen
Strategy #3: Have a Bad Day!

  Element #3: Raise Questions
Strategy #1: Teach to Learn
Strategy #2: Improve the Question
Strategy #3: Ask Meta-Questions

  Element #4: Follow the flow of ideas
Strategy #1: Iterate Ideas
Strategy #2: Extend Ideas
Strategy #3: Think Back

  Element #5: Change
Strategy #1: Expert Change
Strategy #2: The Quintessential You

When to Use It

Use The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking when you are trying to learn or understand differently, be creative, come up with new ideas or just think differently.

What Do You Think?

Do you currently use any of The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking? Will you use any of the new ones you learned? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

References

1 The Five Elements of Effective Thinking by Edward B. Burger and Michael Starbird

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